John Quincy Adams’s (JQA) diary, which was inspired by his father John Adams (JA) and started as a travel journal, initiated a lifelong writing obsession. In 1779, twelve-year-old JQA made his second trip abroad to accompany his father’s diplomatic mission. While in Europe, he attended various schools and traveled to St. Petersburg as an interpreter during Francis Dana’s mission to Russia. He subsequently served as JA’s secretary at Paris during the final months before the Anglo-American Definitive Peace Treaty was signed in September 1783. Two years later, JQA returned to the US. After graduating from Harvard College in 1787, he moved to Newburyport to read law under Theophilus Parsons and in 1790 he established a legal practice in Boston. JQA’s skill as a writer brought him public acclaim, and in 1794 President George Washington nominated him as US minister resident to the Netherlands.
John Quincy Adams (JQA) entered diplomatic service in September 1794 as US minister resident to the Netherlands. He married Louisa Catherine Johnson (LCA) in July 1797 after a fourteen-month engagement, and their three sons were born in this period. During his father John Adams’s (JA) presidency they moved to Berlin where, as US minister plenipotentiary, JQA signed a new Prussian-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce. JQA returned to the US in 1801 and entered politics, elected first to the Massachusetts senate in 1802 and then to the US Senate in 1803. His contentious relationship with fellow Federalist members over his support of some Democratic-Republican policies led to his removal from office. In May 1808 the Federalist-controlled Massachusetts legislature voted to replace him at the end of his term, prompting JQA’s resignation in June. Between 1806 and 1809 he also served as the first Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard.
John Quincy Adams (JQA) returned to diplomatic service in August 1809 as the US’s first minister plenipotentiary to Russia. In St. Petersburg JQA was well-liked by Emperor Alexander I and closely followed the battles of the Napoleonic Wars then raging across Europe. When the US declared war on Great Britain in 1812, Adams watched from afar as the conflict dragged on for two years. In April 1814, he traveled to Ghent, Belgium, as part of the US delegation to negotiate an end to the war with England; the Treaty of Ghent was signed on Christmas Eve. Subsequently appointed US minister to the Court of St. James’s in May 1815, JQA served in London for the next two years.
John Quincy Adams (JQA) served as the US secretary of state during James Monroe’s presidency. Adams’s duties included organizing and responding to all State Department correspondence and negotiating agreements beneficial to the US. His achievements as secretary of state include the Anglo-American Convention of 1818, which established the US border with Canada along the 49th parallel, and the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 (Transcontinental Treaty), which resulted in the US acquisition of Florida. JQA also formulated the policy that became known as the Monroe Doctrine, in which the US called for European non-intervention in the western hemisphere, specifically in the affairs of newly independent Latin American nations. As Monroe’s presidency came to an end, JQA was among the top candidates in the 1824 presidential election. When no candidate earned the necessary majority, the House of Representatives decided the election in JQA’s favor in February 1825.
John Quincy Adams (JQA) was inaugurated as the sixth president of the US on 4 March 1825 and began his administration with an ambitious agenda of improvements for American society. His presidency was embattled. Supporters of Andrew Jackson, who believed their candidate had unfairly lost the 1824 election, worked ceaselessly to foil JQA’s plans. Domestically, JQA refused to replace civil servants with partisan supporters, and his administration became involved in disputes between the Creek Nation and the state of Georgia. JQA’s foreign policy also suffered, as partisan bickering in Congress failed to provide timely funding for US delegates to attend the 1826 Congress of Panama. Political mudslinging in advance of the 1828 presidential election was particularly fierce, and by mid-1827 JQA knew he would not be reelected.
In 1831 John Quincy Adams (JQA) became the only former president to subsequently serve in the US House of Representatives. As the chairman of the House Committee on Manufactures, he helped compose the compromise tariff bill of 1832. He traveled to Philadelphia as part of a committee that investigated the Bank of the United States, drafting a minority report in support of rechartering the bank after disagreeing with the committee’s majority report. JQA regularly presented the antislavery petitions he received from across the country, and he vehemently opposed the passage of the Gag Rule in 1836 that prevented House discussion of petitions related to slavery. He opposed the annexation of Texas, and in 1838 he delivered a marathon speech condemning the evils of slavery. JQA also chaired the committee that oversaw the bequest of James Smithson, which was used to establish the Smithsonian Institution.
During his final years of service in the US House of Representatives, John Quincy Adams (JQA) continued to oppose the Gag Rule that prevented House discussion of petitions related to slavery. In 1839 he joined the defense team for the Africans who revolted aboard the Spanish slave ship Amistad. The Supreme Court declared the Amistad Africans free on 9 March 1841 after JQA delivered oral arguments in their favor. In 1842 JQA faced a censure hearing and ably defended himself against charges from southern congressmen. He introduced a successful resolution that finally led to the repeal of the Gag Rule in 1844. JQA voted against both the annexation of Texas in 1845 and the US declaration of war with Mexico in 1846. He collapsed on the floor of the House on 21 February 1848 and died two days later.
- Lunt William P.
- White Franklin
- Loring Thomas.
- Johnson William C
- Sarah A Johnson
- Adams Isaac H
- Elizabeth C Adams.
Sun rose cloudy.— The return to a sedentary life from a month of great
and constant agitation, excitement and over exercise forms a trial of
the Constitution— It seems as if a hurricane had passed over my spirits;
and now, when they have been a whole week settling down into the
ordinary quiet current of rural Summer life, exercise is necessary to
save them from falling into Syncope— My time for exercise is from the
hour of rising till breakfast; and if I miss it then the day is very apt
to slip through without it— For exercise I am obliged to resort to my
garden and seedling trees— I emptied a seedling pot into Mary Louisas Seminary plot, where there
is now a seedling Apple stock—An Englis Oak and a shagbark walnut, all
of the third year— When Mr Curtis was here day before
yesterday, I agreed to meet him in Boston next Monday Morning, to
execute the deeds of exchange with the purchasers of the Tremont
Theatre— Also to meet Mr Fuller the administrator of
Moses Gill junr. and endeavour to come to a settlement, at the
probate office with him. And further to prepare a Letter to Petty Vaughan at London to be sent by
the Acadia to sail for Liverpool next Wednesday— Mr Curtis dined with us and returned home immediately after
dinner. This day there were visits from Mr Lunt, and Mr Thomas
Loring of Hingham with whom I agreed to go upon our usual
annual fishing party from Cohasset, next Thursday. Isaac Hull Adams and his Sister Elizabeth
William C. Johnson, and his
sister Sarah were here, and the
latter is to stay with Mary-Louisa, while upon her visit here— We
received a Piano from Boston, upon hire by the week. The Boston Courier
of this morning republishes from the Bangor Courier my Letter of 4 July
last to the Bangor Committee for celebrating the anniversary of the
emancipation of Slaves in the British West India Islands; with all the
errors of the Bangor, and several more. Not a word of comment upon the
Letter is in either of the papers— I expected the publication of that
Letter; and wrote it for the purpose of exhibiting in as brief a compass
as possible my principles, feelings and opinions, relating to the
abolition of Slavery and the Slave-trade throughout the world— I meant
it as a note of defiance to all the Slave-holders, Slave traders and
Slave breeders upon earth. As the experiment of Summons to the whole
Freedom of this Union in its own defence, I sent it forth alone, to try
its Fortune in the world, and made it purposely bold and startling, to
rouse if possible both friend and foe— The two publications without
comment, give no promise of a rally for the support of Freedom. As yet
there is no hostile notice of it abroad— It may remain altogether
unnoticed, which is the worst fate that can befall it—for if I can but
raise a controversy by it—that is; an adversary worthy of being
answered, it shall be if my life and health will admit, a text book for
future enlargement and illustrative for the whole remnant of my toilsome
days.